Okay, here’s my take on sharing my “how do you hit a fade” practice and journey:
Alright, so you wanna know how I learned to hit a fade? It wasn’t overnight, lemme tell ya. Here’s the whole shebang, warts and all.
It all started because I was hooking the ball way too much. Like, OB left on every other hole. Super frustrating. I was tired of it, watching my ball disappear into the trees. I decided, screw it, I’m gonna learn to fade the damn thing.
The Initial Research (aka YouTube Binge)
First things first, I hit YouTube hard. Watched a bunch of videos. Everyone and their mother has an opinion on how to hit a fade, right? I saw stuff about open stances, strong grips, weak grips, blah blah blah. Honestly, a lot of it confused me more than it helped.
The key takeaway from all that video watching? Most people said something about aiming slightly left of the target and swinging along my body line. Then, holding the clubface off a bit through impact. Seemed simple enough… on YouTube, anyway.
The Practice Range Disaster (Round One)
Armed with my newfound YouTube knowledge, I headed to the driving range. I tried the open stance thing, aimed left, and swung away. What happened? Mostly shanks. And when I did manage to hit the ball, it usually went straight left or, even worse, turned into a massive pull hook! I was actually worse than before. I probably hit about 50 balls, and maybe 2 or 3 even resembled a fade. Ugh.
Tweaking the Grip (This Actually Helped!)
I went back to the drawing board, read a few articles, and re-watched some videos. I saw some stuff about a “stronger” grip. What they meant was rotating my left hand a bit to the right on the club. I messed around with this at home. It felt kinda weird at first, but I figured I’d give it a shot at the range.
Back at the range (round two!), the stronger grip made a HUGE difference. Suddenly, I wasn’t hooking the ball nearly as much. Now, I was hitting them pretty straight. Ok, progress! I started focusing on keeping the clubface a little open at impact. I didn’t try to force it open, just sort of felt like I was holding it off.
The “Feel” is the Thing
Here’s the thing I realized: you can’t force a fade. You can’t just try to manipulate the club at impact. For me, it was all about the feel. It’s hard to explain, but it’s like… you want to feel like you’re preventing the club from closing completely. A good way to practice this feel is swinging slowly and exaggerating that feel. I would do 20-30 slow motion swings just working on holding the clubface off. It feels weird at first, but after a while your body starts to understand the movement
I would also set up with my alignment slightly to the left of the target, maybe just a couple of degrees. And then swing naturally, while focusing on that hold-off feel. I think the alignment combined with the feel helped me finally achieve the fade I was looking for.
On-Course Application (More Practice Needed!)
So, I took my newfound fade to the course. Let’s just say it was a mixed bag. Some shots were beautiful little fades that landed exactly where I wanted. Others were… less so. I still shanked a few, and occasionally, that dreaded hook would rear its ugly head. But, overall, I was hitting the ball straighter and more predictably than before.
The Takeaway
- Don’t overthink it. The more I tried to force the fade, the worse it got.
- The grip is crucial. Experiment with your grip until you find something that feels comfortable and helps prevent you from closing the clubface too much.
- Practice, practice, practice. It takes time to develop the feel for hitting a fade. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t get it right away.
I am not a pro. I’m just a guy who was tired of hooking the ball. This is what worked for me. Maybe it’ll help you too. Now go hit some balls!
